Circularly sweeping toothbrush

ABSTRACT

A circularly movable mechanical toothbrush having a crank-shaped drive shaft and a reciprocative connecting means that maintains the bristles disposed at all times toward selected teeth, compactingly massages gums during a gradual approach stroke, aligns the bristles with tooth striations and interdental spaces during a sweeping brush stroke, and keeps the bristles disposed away from the user&#39;&#39;s cheek during a return stroke.

United States Patent Sung 15 1 CIRCULARLY SWEEPING TOOTHBRUSH [72] Inventor: Thomas Sung, 217 Park Row, New

York, N. Y. 10038 22 Filed: March 29, 1971 211 Appl.No.: 128,902

[52] US. Cl. ..15/22 R, 74/69, 128/62 A, v 310/80 [51] Int. Cl. ..A46b 13/02 [58-] Field of Search ..l5/22 R, 22 A, 22 C, 97; 128/45, 46, 62 A; 319/50, 80; 74/69 [56] References Cited v UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,204,469 9/1965 Spillers ..1s/2 2 c T v [15] 14s] Nov. 14,1972

3,592,188 7/1971 mew... ..l5/22RX' Primary Examiner-Edward L. Roberts I Attorney-McCarthy, Depaoli, OBrien & Price 57 ABSTRACT A circularly movable mechanical toothbrush having a crank-shaped drive shaft and a reciprocative connecting means that maintains the bristles disposed at all times toward selected teeth, compactingly massages gums during a gradual approach stroke, aligns the bristles with tooth striations and interdental spaces during a sweeping brush stroke, and keeps the bristles disposed away from the users cheek during a return stroke.

1 y CIRCULARLY SWEEPING TOOTHBRUSI-I FIELD THE INVENTION This invention relates to mechanicaltoothbrushes for personal use and in particular relates to circularly BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 7 REVIEW OF THE PRIOR ART provide a mechanically operated toothbrush for personal use, most being electrically driven. In U.S Pat. No. 2,598,275, Lakim discloses an electrically actuated oscillatory toothbrush having a reciprocable shaft driven by an oscillatory or vibratory'motor. In US. Pat. No. 2,655,674, for example, Grover provides a lip guard and a pair of rotary brushes for cleaning both sides of a row of teeth simultaneously.

These and other prior art attempts have shown keen awareness of the problems which -a toothbrush user commonlyencountersin brushing the multi-surfaced teeth and gums without tending to move gums away from the necks of the teeth or to forcefood particles devices is generally caused by unwanted contact of bristles of rotary toothbrushes with the cheek or gums.

' SUMMARY. OF THE INVE TION Accordingly, it is the object of this invention to pro vide a mechanically operated. toothbrush which moves in a path of revolution to provide a sweeping motion during toothbrushing therewith by a personal user.

It is another object of this invention to orient the bristles of the toothbrush of this invention in a general toothward direction at all times.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a I gradual onset of contact of the bristles with the gums as the bristles approach the necks of the teeth, thereby imparting a compacting type of massage to the gums, and also to provide a means for cleaning crown areas by transverse sweeping thereover. These objectives are attained by using a handle of convenient shape and size which is mounted a reversibly operable, rotary drive means, such as a fluidoperable drive means, as disclosed in US. Pat. No. 3,273,189 and No. Re 26,589, a mechanical motor of spring-drive type, or an electric motor of conventional design having an armature and conventional field structure such as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,274,631 and 3,160,902. The drive means is not a part of this invention.

The handle has a base face and conventional sides.

tough but resilient plastic such as polypropylene, are switchmeans forstarting and stopping the motor and for selectively reversing its direction of rotation.

A brush base, which is-preferably formed of the same plastic material, having a jointportion, aslope portion, and a base face whichis disposed adjacent to and mutually parallel with the drive face, is attached to the handle with a revolutionary drive means and a reciprocative connection means so that the rotary motion of thedrive means is translated into a revolutionaf tr If h b h Many attempts have been made in the prior art to ry path 0 ave or bum ase w 116 rotatlon thereof is simultaneously prevented.

A toothbrush having a stem which is interchangeably attached to the joint portion takes advantage of this revolutionary travelso that its bristles are disposed substantially constantly in a selected direction. The attaching means is no part of this invention, suitable ones I generally being described in US. Pat. Nos. 3,256,031

and 3,182,345. v

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF TI-IE DRAWINGS I FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of the circularly operated electric toothbrushof this invention which is partially in section. 1 1

FIG. 2 is a sectional transverse view taken in the direction of the arrows 2-2 in FIG. 1, showing reverse, 'retum, and approach positions of the toothbrush and brushbaseinphantom.

FIG. 3 is a bottom perspective view of thebrush; base and toothbrush of this invention. a

a FIG. 4 is a detailed view of the crank-shaped drive shaft of this invention. l

FIG. 5' is a'front-elevation sectional view of the left side of a user's mouth in which the toothbrush stem is sectioned in the direction of thearrows 5- 5in FIG. 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The circularly operated electric toothbrush of this invention comprises a handle. 10, a brush base 20, a revolutionary drive means in-the form of crank-shaped drive shaft 50 for moving the brush base 20 along a path of revolution,'a reciprocative connection means for maintaining the preferred alignment of the brush base 20, and a toothbrush 30 which is interchangeably attached to the brush base 20, as shown in FIG. .1. The handle 10 comprises a housing, an electric, motor mounted therein, and means 15 for actuating the motor reversibly. The'housing, which is adaptable for manual clasping, comprises the sides 11, the bottom base 12, the drive base 13, and the housing overhang 16.

The brush base 20 comprises the joint portion 21, the slope portion 22 having the front side 23, which is preferably straight as shown in FIG. 3 and which selectively terminates in the front skirt 26, and also having the backside 24 which selectively terminates in the 60 back skirt 27, and the base face 29 which is visible in On one side of th e handle, which is suitably made of a FIG. 3 and includes the socket 25.

The interchangeable toothbrush 30 comprises the stem 31, the bristles 32, and the joint means 33 which is not a distinctive part of this invention. Any commercially available toothbrush 30 may be used as a part of the circularly operated toothbrush of this invention with any suitable joint means 33 which is convenient.

3 g i The crank-shaped drive shaft 50 is shown in detail in FIG. 4.v The drive shaft 50 comprises the drive shaft section 51 which is rigidly attached 'to the electric motor within the handle 10, the revolutionsection 53 which is parallel to the drive section 51 but offset therefrom, the revolution section bearings 55 which are attached to the revolution section 53 and fit within the socket 25 in the base face 29, and the lever 52 which connects the drive section 51 and the revolution section 53 and is perpendicularly disposed to both. I g j The reciprocative connection means 60 comprises the slot 61 and the guide pin 65. The reciprocative connection means 60 preferably has a retaining means at the outer end ther'eof whereby the slot 61 can slideably retain theinserted end of the guide pin 65. A suitable retaining means is .a wider outer end for the guide pin ,65 and a matching bottom portion of the slot 61. The

slot 61 must be disposed in longitudinal alignment with the d'rive section 51. The near end 63 of the slot 61, as shown in FIG. 2, must be at least as close to the drive section 51 as the length of the radius 52. The length of the slot 61 between the near end 63 and the far end 64 must be at least as long as the throw of the drive. shaft 50 which is herein defined as twice the length of the lever 52. The slot 61 may be embeddedyin the drive face 13 or in the base face 29. The guide pin 65 may be rigidly'and perpendicularly attached to and protruding from the base face 29 or the drive face i 13. It is preferred, however, that the slot 61 be embedded in the drive face 13 and the guide pin 65 be attached to the base face 29. v I

As shown in FIG. 2, the revolutionary drive means and the reciprocative connection means of this invention cause the toothbrush bristles 52 to maintain substantially the same orientation during the circular movement of the toothbrushstem 31, similarly to the v 4 When'the stem 31 is in' the reverse position 31a, it continues movingalong the'direction 42. When the' stem 31 is in the return position 31b, it moves along the direction 43. When the stem is in the approachposition tles 32- is determined by the distancev between the operation of a piston and crankshaft in an internal comv bustion engine. FIG. 2 shows the brush base 20 in its center position where its sweeping action takes effect as the bristles move along tooth striations and within interdental spaces.

I The joint portion 21 in FIG. 2 corresponds to the toothbrush stem 31 in FIG. 5, in which the toothbrush is operating in the left side of a users mouth. Three phantom positions 21a, 21b, 210 are shown in FIG. 2

which correspond to the three phantom positions 31a, 31b, 310 shown in FIG 5. The guide pin 65 is closest to the end 63 of the guide slot 61 while the joint portion 21 is in its center position, as shown in solid lines in FIG. 2. As the joint portion revolves, the guide pin 65 moves toward the far end 64.

At the moment of being in the reverse position 21a, the guide pin 65 has moved relatively slightly to position 65a, the distance between the guide pin 65 and the revolution drive section 53 being at all times constant. When the joint 21 is near its return position 21b, approximately opposite to the brush position'21, as seen in FIG. 2, the guide pin 65b is close tothe far end 64 of the slot 61. When the joint 21 is in its approach position 210, the guide pin 65 is in the same position 65c as formerly noted for position 210.

Referring to FIG. 5, when the brush stem 31 revolves away from the solid position shown, it moves along the direction 41 so that the. bristles 32 penetrate deeply into interdental areas and sweep food particles away.

socket 25 and the guide pin 65. i

When a user is operating the toothbrush of this invention with one hand, he is able to direct its operation so that the preferred dental technique of brushing away from the and toward the teeth is readily used. The bristles 32 are able to penetrate between adjacent teeth and are able tofollow the striationsoftheteeth. By bringing the upper and lower teeth and 80, respectively, fairly close together, the bristles 32 compactingly massage the gums 71 of the lower jaw when passing by in the approach position 31c, vigorously brush the necks 72 of the lower teeth 70when in the brush position, and outwardly sweep over the crowns 83 of the upper teeth .when in the reverse position 31a. Subsequently, when executing the circular return operation as shown in return position 31b, the back of the stem 31 moves lightly downward against check 74 without any contact of the bristles 32 therewith.

A simple twist of the user's wrist, after selectively reversing the motor by touching the reversible actuating means therefore, is sufticient to repeat this desirable brushing action on the inner sides of the lower teeth 70 or of the upper teeth 80 or-to brush directly across the crown bases 73 and 83'of the lower and upper teeth, respectively, in transverse or longitudinal sweeping operation. The electric motor in the handle 10 is suitably operated on batteries or on conventional volt AC current. A small spot light maybe attached to the side 11' of the housing so that it is collimated to shine directly on the bristles 32 when in the brushing position.

It should be understood that the circularly operated toothbrush cited hereinbefore ,may be varied as to structure of the toothbrush, the joint, the revolution drive means, and the reciprocative connection means without departing from the spirit of the invention as disclosed herein, so that it should be understood that the limits of the invention are entirely as defined in the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A circularly movable toothbrush, comprising:

A. a handle comprising: (1) a housing which is adaptable for manual clasping, having sides and a drive base, (2) a rotary drive means mounted within said housing, and (3) an externally mounted actuating means for reversibly operating said rotary drive means;

B. a brush base having a joint portion, a slope portion, and a base face which is disposed adjacent to and mutually parallel with said drive face, and having a socket therein;

C. a drive means, comprising a crank-shaped drive shaft which comprises a drive section, a revolution section, and a lever intermediate thereof, said drive section being rigidly attachedto said drive means in driving relationship therewith;

D. A reciprocative connection means between said drive base and said base face, comprising a rigidly mounted guide pin and a guide slot that slideably receives the outer end of said guide pin and is at least as long as the throw of said crank-shaped drive shaft, said slot being longitudinally aligned with said drive section; and

E. a toothbrush having a stem which is interchangeably attached to said joint portion, having bristles which at all times maintain alignment with said guide pin while being disposed away therefrom. I

2. The toothbrush of claim 1 in which said slot is embedded in said drive face and said guide pin is rigidly attached to and mounted within said base face.

3. The toothbrush of claim 3 in which said revolution section is fitted with a bearing and is rotatably mounted within said socket in said base face.

4. The toothbrush of claim. 3 in which said bristles perform a circular motion and said guide pin performs sequentially massage gums while in the approach position, brush the necks of teeth in the brush position, and sweep over the crowns of the opposed teeth when in the reverse position.

7. The toothbrush of claim 6 in which said drive means is an electric motor which is reversible by use'of said externally mounted actuation means.

8. A circularly movable toothbrush, comprising:

A. a handle comprising: (1) a housing adaptable for manual clasping and having sides and a drive base, (2) rotary drivemeans mounted within said housing, and (3) actuating means for reversibly operating said rotary drive means;

B. a brush base adapted for receiving the stem of a toothbrush and having a base face disposed ad-.

jacent to and generally in face to face relationship with said handle drive base, and having a socket therein;

C. a drive means comprising a crank-shaped drive shaft which comprises a drive section, a revolution section, and a lever intermediate thereof, said drive section being rigidly attached to said drive means in driving relationship therewith; I

D. a reciprocative connection means between said drive base and said base face, comprising a rigidly mounted guide pin and a guide slot that slideably receives the outer end of said guide pin and is at least as long as the throw of said crank-shaped drive shaft, said slot being longitudinally aligned with said drive section; and

E. a toothbrush having a stem which is interchangeably attached to said brush base and having bristles which at all times maintain alignment with said guide pin while being disposed away therefrom. 

1. A circularly movable toothbrush, comprising: A. a handle comprising: (1) a housing which is adaptable for manual clasping, having sides and a drive base, (2) a rotary drive means mounted within said housing, and (3) an externally mounted actuating means for reversibly operating said rotary drive means; B. a brush base having a joint portion, a slope portion, and a base face which is disposed adjacent to and mutually parallel with said drive face, and having a socket therein; C. a drive means, comprising a crank-shaped drive shaft which comprises a drive section, a revolution section, and a lever intermediate thereof, said drive section being rigidly attached to said drive means in driving relationship therewith; D. A reciprocative connection means between said drive base and said base face, comprising a rigidly mounted guide pin and a guide slot that slideably receives the outer end of said guide pin and is at least as long as the throw of said crank-shaped drive shaft, said slot being longitudinally aligned with said drive section; and E. a toothbrush having a stem which is interchangeably attached to said joint portion, having bristles which at all times maintain alignment with said guide pin while being disposed away therefrom.
 2. The toothbrush of claim 1 in which said slot is embedded in said drive face and said guide pin is rigidly attached to and mounted within said base face.
 3. The toothbrush of claim 3 in which said revolution section is fitted with a bearing and is rotatably mounted within said socket in said base face.
 4. The toothbrush of claim 3 in which said bristles perform a circular motion and said guide pin performs a reciprocatory motion.
 5. The toothbrush of claim 4 in which said bristles perform a sweeping motion when said guide pin is closest to said drive section.
 6. The toothbrush of claim 5 in which said bristles sequentially massage gums while in the approach position, brush the necks of teeth in the brush position, and sweep over the crowns of the opposed teeth when in the reverse position.
 7. The toothbrush of claim 6 in which said drive means is an electric motor which is reversible by use of said externally mounted actuation means.
 8. A circularly movable toothbrush, comprising: A. a handle comprising: (1) a housing adaptable for manual clasping and having sides and a drive base, (2) rotary drive means mounted within said housing, and (3) actuating means for reversibly operating said rotary drive means; B. a brush base adapted for receiving the stem of a toothbrush and having a base face disposed adjacent to and generally in face to face relationship with sAid handle drive base, and having a socket therein; C. a drive means comprising a crank-shaped drive shaft which comprises a drive section, a revolution section, and a lever intermediate thereof, said drive section being rigidly attached to said drive means in driving relationship therewith; D. a reciprocative connection means between said drive base and said base face, comprising a rigidly mounted guide pin and a guide slot that slideably receives the outer end of said guide pin and is at least as long as the throw of said crank-shaped drive shaft, said slot being longitudinally aligned with said drive section; and E. a toothbrush having a stem which is interchangeably attached to said brush base and having bristles which at all times maintain alignment with said guide pin while being disposed away therefrom. 